Last Saturday was our first week of canvassing this summer, following our spring efforts, in seven Senate Swing States that will determine the majority in the U.S. Senate in 2023. For the past 3 months, Hope Springs from Field PAC mobilized 9,356 volunteers who knocked on 663,601 doors and talked to 58,562 voters. We registered 5,031 voters at their doors and collected 2,407 Constituent Service Request Forms from voters who needed assistance or wanted some public area issue addressed. But that was then, this is now.
Last Saturday we added Ohio to our existing canvasses in Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — all critical states that will determine the Senate majority for the next two years. Since it is hurricane season, not sure anyone is surprised we got rained out in Florida.
1,296 volunteers came out to knock on doors for Hope Springs from Field PAC last Saturday. Still, even though we added a state, we didn’t reach our pre-Memorial Day high. They knocked on 91,366 doors, and had conversations with 7,368 voters.
We walk with an Issues Canvass, where we ask voters what they think and whether they had a message for their elected officials. 4,564 voters answered questions from the survey, in whole or in part. Almost everyone who responded answered at least two of the questions (‘do you have a message for your Congress critter’ and ‘what is their opinion of the job Biden is doing’). 3,106 voters told us that they have a favorable opinion of the job Biden was doing as president. 1,644 voters didn’t express an opinion of the president at this time. 664 said they had a negative impression of the job the president was doing.
The rising price of gas jumped up as the Top Issue from our questionnaire in Arizona, Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin. Gun Violence was the most frequent response in Georgia and Pennsylvania. Inflation was the number 1 issue North Carolina. We continue to hear a lot of comments about price increases and how it is effecting voters’ wallets. And people continue to tell us that Democrats should talk about it more.
The number 2 issue was different in most states: Gun Violence was the second most frequent issue mentioned in North Carolina and Wisconsin; Gas Prices was second in Georgia and Pennsylvania; in Arizona it was Crime; Reproductive Rights was second in Nevada; and the Economy was second in Ohio.
Crime was the third most frequent response in North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin. The Economy was third in Georgia; Gun Violence was third in Arizona and Nevada; Reproductive Rights was third in Pennsylvania.
Hope Springs from Field PAC is knocking on doors in a grassroots-led effort to increase awareness of the fact that Democrats care about our voters and are working to protect their rights. We are thinking about how to mitigate Voter Suppression efforts, get around them and make sure we have "super compliance," both informing and helping our voters meet the requirements and get out and vote. We are taking those efforts to the doors of the communities most effected (the intended targets or victims) of these new voter suppression laws.
Obviously, we rely on grassroots support, so if you support field/grassroots organizing and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization
Hope Springs from Field PAC was started by former Obama Field Organizers because field was the cornerstone of our success. The approach we adopted was focused on listening, on connecting voters and their story to the candidate and our cause. Repeated face to face interactions are critical. And we are among those who believe that Democrats didn’t do as well in the 2020 Congressional races as expected because we didn’t knock on doors. We are returning to the old school basics: repeated contacts, repeated efforts to remind them of protocols, meeting them were they are. Mentoring those who need it (like first time and newly registered voters). Reminding, reminding, reminding, and then chasing down those voters whose ballots need to be cured.
Hope Springs has targeted states that have competitive Senate races in 2022 as well as districts that are remapped in ways that offer opportunities or vulnerabilities for Democrats next year. There are places we need to defend (Georgia, Arizona and Nevada) and there are opportunities. Florida, North Carolina, Ohio!, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are such opportunities.
We ask voters who talk to us whether they approve or disapprove of the job the president, their incumbent Senator (up for election this year) and their governor (up for election this year) is doing. After the primaries, we ask about the Democratic Senate and Gubernatorial nominees.
We weren’t able to knock on doors in Florida last Saturday because of rain.
In Arizona, 56% of the voters we talked to responded they had a favorable impression of President Biden and 73% had a favorable impression of Senator Kelly. It is kind of interesting that Kelly is now generally polling above Biden. 18% of them had a favorable impression of their retiring Governor Doug Ducey while 34% had an unfavorable view.
In Georgia, 57% of the voters we talked to approved of the job President Biden was doing. 75% approved of the job Senator Warnock was doing. Only 14% approved of the job Governor Kemp was doing. 71% of the voters we talked to last week had a favorable impression of Stacey Abrams. The trend lines in SW Georgia are kind of interesting. Again, we are talking to households identified in the VAN model as Democratic and Independent voters (Georgia doesn’t have party registration). We do our best to eliminate Republican households although we do get mixed addresses, where someone is a Democrat (usually a female or younger voter) and someone is a Republican (usually male).
In North Carolina, 58% of the voters we talked to approved of the job President Biden was doing. 61% of the voters we talked to approved of the job Governor Cooper was doing. Since the Democratic nominee for Senate is now official, we also asked about Cheri Beasley, the former Chief Justice of the NC Supreme Court. 70% of the people we talked to had a favorable impression of Justice Beasley.
In Nevada, 58% of the voters we talked to approved of the job President Biden was doing. 56% had a favorable impression of the job Senator Cortez Masto was doing. 59% of voters approved of the job Governor Sisolak was doing.
In Ohio, in our first week of canvassing, 55% of the voters we talked to approved of the job President Biden was doing. 62% approved of the job Tim Ryan was doing. I have to say that I am surprised that Ryan’s name recognition was high enough to warrant that, but it is our first week. 48% approved of the job that Governor DeWine was doing.
In Pennsylvania, in our third week of canvassing, 59% of the voters we talked to approved of the job President Biden was doing. 55% had a favorable opinion of John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate. 62% had a favorable view of Josh Shapiro, the Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania governor. Remember, we are knocking on Democratic and independent doors, and we endeavor to exclude (exclusively) Republican households.
In Wisconsin, in our fourth week of canvassing, 58% of the voters we talked to approved of the job President Biden was doing. 3% approved of the job Senator Johnson was doing. 53% approved of the job that Governor Evers was doing.
The trend lines have really converged for President Biden’s approval ratings. Even in Georgia, which had consistently been above the other states has fallen to the norm of these 7 states. Remember that we don’t knock on doors of Republican households even though there are definitely doors of mixed party households we canvass. But we are getting interesting feedback from voters who seem inclined to support the president. “He’s got to deliver,” said one voter in Wisconsin — a sentiment shared by others in not so different language.
Beating Trump isn’t enough any more.
83 people filled out new voter registration forms for their states during last weekend’s canvassing (we collected no new voter registrations in Georgia, where there was a primary) and another 474 voters updated their address, as required by HAVA. We differentiate between the two because brand new voters are often ignored by campaigns and we hope to compensate for that somewhat by having volunteers send them post cards before the election and they are also getting robocalls thanking them for registering.
We collected 366 Constituent Service Request Forms this week. In general, we send these to Democratic elected officials responsible for the requested functions, but if the appropriate office is held by a Republican, we still send it along. For Democrats, though, we encourage them to reach out immediately to the voter who filled out the CSR and let them know they are working on the issue. This credit-taking is enormously valuable to the Democratic office-holder.
We continue to walk with Incident Reports and 59 voters (mostly in Georgia and North Carolina, which have just had a primary election) filled them out on last Saturday. We pass along Incident Reports to the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights and NALEO (those that correspond to Hispanic precincts), and send copies to state Democratic Party committees. But our purpose is to combine this information with the two independent databases of voting incidents to look for patterns before the election and use that information for warning district, state and U.S. attorneys’ offices that we could see those patterns resurface on election day. We will also use it to target Election Day Protection activity.
By starting early, and aiming towards super-compliance with these really, really onerous provisions in some states, Hope Springs from Field PAC seeks to undermine that strategy, while informing voters about the new laws and regulations aimed at them. There’s a lot of work to be done, but fortunately, the three states that are making it most difficult are also states in which you can knock on doors at least 10 months out of the year. And, with your help, we will be there, getting our people to super-comply with these restrictive provisions.
If you are able to support our efforts to protect Democratic voters, especially in minority communities, expand the electorate, and believe in grassroots efforts to increase voter participation and election protection, please help:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization
Thank you for your support. This work depends on you!
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